…Sets sights on developing next generation of Payment Technology Talent for Africa
Admin I Monday, June 03, 2024
LAGOS, Nigeria – Interswitch Group, one of Africa’s most renowned digital payments and commerce companies, has announced the commencement of its Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) Engineering Programme, which is an early-career development programme for engineering talents to develop competencies in end-to-end electronic funds transfer technology and operations.
Through this new programme, which will incorporate six months of intensive and hands-on training and global exposure to latest dynamics and best practices in Switching and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) technologies, Interswitch hopes to onboard up to 40 EFT engineering talents. The programme is targeted at young graduates and engineering talents with 0-5 years of work experience, incorporating fundamental skills in technical support/implementation within banking & fintech environments, and some programming proficiency.
According to the company’s official announcement unveiling the programme, the initiative follows career development opportunities which were announced in the course of the highly topical 3rd edition of its annual career fair a few weeks back, which was themed “Reimagining Work: People, Culture, Technology“, essentially highlighting the need for young upwardly mobile talent to view the future of work from a different lens by leveraging innovative technologies to enhance productivity in the modern workplace.
As a way of consolidating the gains from the career fair, Interswitch had also indicated that it has forged strategic partnerships with leading organisations such as LinkedIn, ProductDive, ALX, Oscar Temple, Kendor, Udemy, Decagon, and Semicolon, ensuring that attendees have ongoing direct access to a vast pool of expertise and unparalleled upskilling opportunities delivered by renowned experts.
Interswitch describes the new EFT Engineering Programme as “the most comprehensive, six-month intensive, hands-on payments engineering programme that will offer successful participants an exciting opportunity to learn from the very best in EFT engineering and operations locally and globally, hitting the road running by working on real projects that impact Africa’s digital banking landscape, and progressively shaping the future of payment technology in Africa, a continent that’s ranked the 2nd most innovative on the global payments innovation matrix.”
According to a 2023 study by SAP Africa, firms across West and East Africa continue to grapple with acute tech talent shortages, with the challenges expected to intensify over the next few years. The report specifically indicates that 93% of organisations across the two regions say their needs for tech skills have increased in the past 24 months and 80% of Nigerian firms surveyed indicated they currently experience significant tech skill shortages.
A statement by Interswitch asserts that the frontline technology company has resolved to take the bull by the horns in re-writing the narrative around the issue of brain-drain from Africa.
Interswitch expresses strong conviction that “the onus lies on tech firms of African origin like ours to aggressively raise a new generation of talent, not just to meet our own company-specific recruitment requirements, but to replenish the talent pipeline holistically for the local industry, which underscores such talent development interventions like our latest EFT Engineering Programme, as well as through distinctive approaches to internal and external talent development and management, which have consistently been recognized at the annual Linkedin Talent Awards and Linkedin’s Top Employers in Nigeria series in 2019, 2022 and 2023, include the Interswitch Engineering Academy, the pioneering #InterswitchJobShadowing Program, and the Interswitch Career Fair Series, arguably Africa’s biggest annual technology career fair, now in its 3rd year.”
Applications for the inaugural Interswitch EFT Engineering Programme are ongoing and can be accessed on the company’s recruitment portal via https://lnkd.in/en5EXkv2
